MacBook Neo Starts at Just $499 for Students - MacRumors
Skip to Content

MacBook Neo Starts at Just $499 for Students

Following months of rumors about a lower-cost MacBook, Apple has delivered in a big way with the MacBook Neo, which starts at $599 in the United States.

MacBook Neo Held Out x4
Even better, the MacBook Neo starts at just $499 through Apple's education store on its website, for eligible college students and educational staff.

There is only one upgrade option available for the MacBook Neo. If you want a configuration with a Touch ID button and an expanded 512GB of storage, that costs $100 extra. This raises the price to $699 for the general public, and to $599 for college students. But, that is the most expensive the MacBook Neo gets on its own.

With the MacBook Air's starting price rising from $999 to $1,099 with the introduction of new models with the M5 chip this week — albeit with a doubled 512GB of storage — the MacBook Neo is as much as $500 cheaper than the MacBook Air. And it could go on sale through resellers like Amazon for even less eventually.

Here is an overview of the U.S. starting prices for MacBooks:

  • 13-inch MacBook Neo: $599
  • 13-inch MacBook Air: $1,099
  • 15-inch MacBook Air: $1,299
  • 14-inch MacBook Pro: $1,699
  • 16-inch MacBook Pro: $2,699

MacBook Neo is available to pre-order now and launches on Wednesday, March 11.

Related Roundup: MacBook Neo
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Neo (Buy Now)
Related Forum: MacBook Neo

Popular Stories

MacBook Neo on Yellow Feature

Apple Planning to Update MacBook Neo in Three Ways

Friday September 4, 2026 7:17 am PDT by
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today reported that Apple plans to release a second-generation MacBook Neo in 2027 with three updates: an A19 Pro chip, 12GB of RAM, and new color options. Released in March 2026, the current MacBook Neo has an A18 Pro chip with 8GB of RAM, and it is available in Silver, Blush, Citrus, and Indigo. In the U.S., the laptop initially started at $599, but Apple raised the...
iPhone Handoff Feature

iOS 27 Introduces New 'iPhone Handoff' Feature

Wednesday September 2, 2026 12:35 pm PDT by
Apple has added a new "iPhone Handoff" feature to iOS 27 that will allow you to switch between two iPhones while using the same phone number on each device. This functionality was briefly mentioned during the WWDC 2026 keynote in June, on a slide that listed hundreds of new features coming in iOS 27 and corresponding software updates, but Apple never shared any further details at the time. ...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Prices Estimated Ahead of Apple Event Next Week

Thursday September 3, 2026 3:41 am PDT by
Less than a week before Apple debuts new iPhone 18 Pro models, research firm TrendForce has estimated the prices of the devices based on the latest hardware cost environment. TrendForce's price estimates compared to last year's models look like this: Model Starting Price Model Starting Price Change iPhone 17 Pro $1,099 iPhone 18 Pro $...

Top Rated Comments

Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
26 weeks ago
What a value. It makes the iPad mini pricing look ridiculous.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
26 weeks ago
$539 for veterans/military discount in case anyone was curious.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Blackstick Avatar
26 weeks ago

So these come in 4 different colors, all with a white USB charging cable and white power adapter. Seems like the target audience would like to have their USB cable color matched to the laptop.
Gotta tell you... my daughters run their iPad battery down to 0 and plug into whatever cable they can find... they see USB-C as a town bicycle you-know-what.They have zero concern over color matching anything. They'd plug into the breaker box in the basement if there was a port down there.

They steal my Pro's 96W brick all the time, to charge a base iPad, or their Nintendo Switch lite... to them "it's just another USBc port."
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
26 weeks ago
This is gonna sell like hotcakes
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kaspurr Avatar
26 weeks ago

What a value. It makes the iPad mini pricing look ridiculous.
You looked at the iPad Air lately? its gotta be the worst value Apple product out right now for its features and hardware. $1200 for 13" 256GB storage and Magic Keyboard
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CalMin Avatar
26 weeks ago
It plugs a pretty important gap in the market. They have literally every price point covered.

If it’s not junk (and it doesn’t look like junk) it’s going to be a great computer for those with basic computing needs such as email, web, light word processing and spreadsheets, photos, YouTube/Netflix etc.

Moreover it will likely put massive pressure on the low end of the Windows/Chromebook market.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)